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I play Skyrim for almost 15 years but recently I discovered a simple way to sense the lore scale and size using only 3 built-in mechanics: waiting, looting and slow walking.

I added simple waiting rules to my character for barely any action that will take time like: eating the complex dinner takes 1 hour, brewing 5 potions takes 1 hour, forging a sword takes 10-20 hours depends on material and smithing skill, forging armor takes up to 2 weeks that could be parted, after battle character needs up to 3 days to rest in city before next fight, delaying travels for bad weather, spelltome requires 1 to 10 days to learn depends on spell level etc.

Looting also takes time. I wait 2 to 18 hours after quick looting depends on location size to feel like if my character actually loots and checks everything. From enemies I loot only money, trinkets, jewels, spellbooks... and only rarely my character can afford himself to loot armor, boots etc. to simulate suitable size. And of course I can not wear any looted armor before upgrade in a workbench to fit size that would also take some time.

Also my character walks only on roads and doesn't use map or compass. Slow walking (CAPS lock by default) any time is is not combat, using roads, rivers and signs to navigate, stops for night. No looting and even opening locations with no reason (like quests) etc.. SE/AE users can also turn on survival mode that makes such "live character's life" gameplay even more fair.

In total it makes Skyrim feel like some kind of really another game. You really start to plan trips, calculate your food reserves and also you begin to understand how big is this game lore distances and sizes.

No more Riften to Solitude speedrun on a straight line with constant sprint in 10 ingame hours, no more packs of loot and questions like "how can they be so poor in lore if you can just run in a bandit camp, tear them apart, loot all and walk on onerweighg to nearest trader?!".

P.S.: Why in the name of Argonian Maid am I actually doing this? IDK, just sharing some method to make beloved game feel like something new. And maybe someone would try this and like it.

I feel like while yes, it’s dated and such, it still is a technical achievement that (1) made all the other following games possible and (2) was actually a product of love on the part of its creators (3) was actually ground breaking in some way.

It was trying something new.

An RPG world with a degree of depth, and already existing lore, in a 3D world.

The game was essentially being developed alongside Doom, and no one questions how transformative Doom was.

Arena wasn’t just a dungeon crawler; where Ultima Underworld (a contemporary) limited the screen to a centered square, Arena gave an almost full screen view of its world. Where Ultima Underworld was set in a dungeon, Arena gave the world Tamriel, an entire continent with its own unique environs, to explore.

While Underworld was deeply interactive for its time (allowing you to use a lit torch on food items or stack objects), that game’s structure was fundamentally a series of linear, self contained dungeon levels.

Arena offered more of a sprawling sandbox philosophy, where you could wander across entire provinces, buy a house, get lost in random wilderness, and treat the game world as a continuous space rather than a segmented puzzle box. 

Was the lore set down yet? Absolutely not, but you get hints of it.

The continent itself, the names thereof; the Septim dynasty going back centuries, Tiber Septim.

Factions like The Dark Brotherhood and Blades exist. Gods like the dark death god Sithis exist. Characters like the Underking are mentioned. The Mad God has a temple you do quests for.

They’re embryonic and lay the groundwork for future expansion - but that in itself belies its greatness. This game was attempting, in 1992, several things at once:

To give a fully 3D world full of various elements to explore;

Various factions;

To basically be its own world with its own history;

To be the tabletop RPG experience, made digital.

As Todd himself has said, “You can pull up a review of Arena, our first Elder Scrolls game, and if you black out a few words, you can't tell what Elder Scrolls game it is, whether it's Daggerfall, Morrowind, or Oblivion."

A reviewer of Arena back in 1994 “if Arena captures the imagination of other gamers as it captured mine, it may well be the game that establishes the formula for new RPGs”…and she was proven right, as the Elder Scrolls reshaped the genre.

Todd himself has pointed to as much as the game has changed, it’s stayed the same.

There is the famous review of Arena, which he changes to say “Skyrim”, to prove how little deep down has changed.

The technology has gotten better, the lore has gotten deeper. The experience at its core, hasn’t changed. And we have Arena, as flawed and dated as it is, for that.

Too often Arena is criticised for what it isn’t - and not looked at for what it was, and for what it paved the groundwork to

Playing through Oblivion for the first time, I'm loving it but holy hell there's a lot of gates, I thought they'd be part of major story points etc, not just out randomly spawning every now and then.

On a side note: somehow I became a vampire, can I reverse it? Dying to the sun sucks.

Because i saw another conversation, does anyone here want the next game to really give you options to live in the world even after main quest etc are completed ?

Talking about farm and sell things, buy a business and see your kids grow along with any other options the game may often, random events, dynamic world. Karma, outcomes based on behaviours things like that.

Just a thought, IF it happens.

Some of you may be more familiar with my Khajiit character but occasionally I try new ideas. I have been toying with the idea of a Half Giant Undertaker, and finally decided to try it out. Now the adventure begins

Undertaker: Skyrim, for too long have I slumbered. I have walked these lands since the days of old when dragons roamed the Skies and Deadra armies invaded these land. And every last one of them met their ends by my own hands. Time and time again they tried to take these lands, but you cant stop the dead. And in the end the Undertaker always collects their souls.

For a time Skyrim knew peace, to the point where I was no longer needed and so I have slept for ages. But now i have awoken to a Skyrim on the brink if destruction. The Thalmor invade and manipulate from the shadows, dragons have returned and the Daedric Princess play their games all while the innocent suffer. It is time to remind them all that while Talos and the Devine are worshipped as Gods they still kneel before me and address me as Sir. And to all those who threaten Skyrim I say only this. YOU…WILL…REST…IN PEACE!!!!

(To anyone interested I created a new sub r/ElderScrolladventures where I intend to post all things related to Elder Scrolls. Anything in game or IRL is welcome, but no 18+ content please! If you love the Elder Scrolls and want a place to follow these adventures and create your own you are welcome!)

Like its obvious a full game set in Akavir, Atmora, Pyandonea or Yokuda wouldn’t rlly work. But what about a DLC? Something that allows you to visit maybe like a place in Akavir or the coast of Atmorah tell a story in those places. Yes there are books both in and out of game talkibf about them, but the continents are some of the only places we’ve never gotten to be. We’ve gone to multiple realms of oblivion, the clockwork city twice, and with ESO we’ve seen damn near the entire continent of tamriel. So would yall wanna finally explore bits and pieces of Akavir or Atmorah in ES6?

Been working on this Skyrim setup for a while. Thought this community might appreciate it.

Logged back into Elder Scrolls Online thursday last week, I couldn't and still can't join any guild, talk in game, use any guild traders. Made a ticket last week and still no one has looked at it. Anyone have any idea what's going on with my account? my ticket # 260904-001423. Sucks i bought eso+, tome premium and I can't even properly play the game with my friends and guilds.

Hey r/ElderScrolls,

Please go easy on me, this is actually my first ever post 😂.

I've gotten back into playing ESO lately and it's got me a bit obsessed with the idea of a dark, gritty horror anthology series set in Tamriel, aha.

The idea I had was basically 10 episodes, 10 playable races, 10 different locations and 10 completely separate stories.

Instead of the usual chosen one saves the world story, I'd love to see something that really leans into the darker and more terrifying side of the lore. I feel like every episode could focus on a different race and province and tell a completely different type of horror story. It could be anything from folk horror and Daedric corruption to psychological horror and just trying to survive.

I'd personally love to see it as live action but I think an animated version could work really well too.

I spent way too much time mapping out what a 10 episode first season could look like 😂 So I thought it could be nice to share it and see what everyone thinks.

Episode 1: Breton, Glenumbra

A pretentious academic travels into the misty forests of Glenumbra and ends up trespassing somewhere he really shouldn't. The local spriggans and lurchers start hunting him down and it turns into a proper folk horror survival story as he tries to make it out of the forest alive.

Episode 2: Altmer, Auridon

A struggling and heavily bullied High Elf student on Auridon makes a desperate pact with Namira. They gain some pretty horrific powers over rot and decay and use them to get revenge on their abusers. But eventually they realise they've basically handed themselves over to something much worse.

Episode 3: Khajiit, Northern Elsweyr

A slick street pickpocket steals a strange magical artefact from a wealthy merchant. The problem is that the artefact seems to have a mind of its own. It starts invading their dreams and eventually the dreams begin to bleed into reality. They have to figure out what they've stolen and how to get rid of it before it consumes them.

Episode 4: Argonian, Black Marsh

An elite Shadowscale assassin of the Dark Brotherhood is ordered to carry out a Purification of their own sanctuary. I think this one could get really messed up. Imagine someone who is completely comfortable with killing suddenly being forced to slaughter their own kin. It would be a lot more focused on the psychological and spiritual horror of what they're being asked to do.

Episode 5: Nord, Whiterun Hold

A confident Whiterun warrior explores a forgotten cave system beneath the mountains and gets separated from his group. He soon realises he's not alone when blind, feral Falmer start hunting him through the tunnels. Basically a claustrophobic survival horror where he has to fight his way through the darkness before he ends up dead, blinded or worse.

Episode 6: Dunmer, Telvanni Peninsula

A pretty horrible Dunmer hunter is hired by a Telvanni wizard to track down some runaway Argonian slaves. Things don't exactly go according to plan and he ends up being captured by a local tribe himself. They end up giving him a pretty brutal lesson about slavery and revenge, basically forcing him to experience the sort of treatment he's been inflicting on others.

Episode 7: Bosmer, Valenwood

A Wood Elf becomes stranded deep in Valenwood after a monster attack. With no food and no idea when they'll be rescued, they eventually have to choose between starving to death or breaking the Green Pact. They choose survival, only for things to get increasingly disturbing as they start suffering horrific physical changes and what they believe is Y'ffre's wrath.

Episode 8: Redguard, Hew's Bane

A ruthless pirate crew operating out of Hew's Bane comes across a mysterious ship drifting out at sea. Thinking they've found an easy target, they board it and quickly realise they've made a massive mistake. The ship belongs to some ancient sea sorcerers, possibly even the Maormer, and the crew find themselves trapped in a fight against some pretty dark maritime magic.

Episode 9: Orc, Western Skyrim and Wrothgar

An Orc is framed by a jealous rival and exiled from their stronghold in Western Skyrim. They decide to travel back to their ancestral homeland of Wrothgar to start over, only to find themselves caught up in clan politics and violence all over again. This one would probably be less supernatural and more about exile, identity and the brutal side of Orcish clan life.

Episode 10: Imperial, The Imperial City

A completely ordinary Imperial citizen exploring the forgotten depths of the Imperial City sewers accidentally discovers a hidden Daedric cult performing a human sacrifice. With no guards around and nowhere safe to run, they have to stay hidden and figure out how to stop the ritual before whatever the cult is summoning manages to come through.

The main thing I'd want is for each story to actually feel like an Elder Scrolls story. The race and location wouldn't just be there for variety. Each episode would focus on the mythology, culture and darker side of that particular part of Tamriel.

Anyway, that's the idea I've had rattling around in my head 😂

What do you guys think? Which episode would you want to watch first?

First, I need to clarify something - this art wasn't made by me, I downloaded it 5 years ago or so, and didn't remember the author. But nowadays searching systems can't find the source, and I would really appreciate to know who made it.

Second, is that I brought the colours, and it was one of my first attempts at all.

Third, Brelyna Marion is an amazing follower and spouse. Give her a chance in your next playthrough, especially if you prefer quiet companions who don't babble constantly.

I'm on day 2 or 3 of this shit.

Just an evening with one of our favorite games.

https://youtube.com/@beaninacan?si=9OgldT6uRwU5zgUH

Art by me

Almalexia in Tribunal vs Umaril vs Miraak

Not actually, but i thought it would be cool to see the conquest of Tamriel, civilization of Atmoran peoples, the Frostfall event, origins of ysgramor and his companions